Category Archives: Movies

You don’t say

Dec. 31, 20122:52 p.m.

“I’m kind of amused by it.”

– Movie mogul Bill Warren, whose Moore, Okla., theater is getting some free publicity in a TV ad trying to lure Boeing workers to the city

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Warren Theatre staff wishes Marvin Autry hadn’t wished everyone a happy holiday

Nov. 26, 20124:18 p.m.

WICHITA — Who is Marvin Autry, and why did he wish Warren Theatre East moviegoers happy Thanksgiving?

That’s what some Warren visitors wondered when they saw, “Marvin Autry says happy Thanksgiving,” on the theater’s marquee last week.

The marquee is the latest in a little joke between theater owner Bill Warren and Autry, who owns Midwest Corporate Aviation.

A couple of years back, Warren lost “some stupid bet” to Autry. Warren claims he can’t remember what it was for, but he had to give Autry his own parking space at the theater, complete with his name on it.

“People over the years have asked about the parking spot,” Warren says.

Then, when Warren named parking lot poles after movie stars to help people remember where they parked, he named one for Autry.

“And so he started getting phone calls and texts and e-mails asking what’s going on,” Warren says. “We told people it’s Gene Autry’s younger brother.”

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Glitch sends texts about nearby escorts to Warren Theatre security

Oct. 15, 20125:00 a.m.

WICHITA – Warren Theatres owner Bill Warren is pleased with the latest security measure he’s taken at his theaters except for one small glitch.

Warren instituted new measures at his theaters in Kansas, Oklahoma and Missouri following the theater shootings in Aurora, Colo., this summer.

“We had good security, but we just looked it over after Aurora and said, ‘Is there anything we can improve?’

“You do things to make it a lot tougher,” Warren says. “I mean, I spent $100,000 doing this.”

The new system is a custom-designed system on all exit doors that immediately sends texts to the phones of Warren managers and security personnel when the doors are opened.

“So they always know what’s going on in theaters for safety reasons,” Warren says.

He says it’s working well except for at the Palace West theater near Kellogg and Ridge.

“We’re getting texts from escort services,” Warren says. “Can you believe that?”

He says the texts have messages such as “Bubbles is in room number five.”

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You don’t say

Aug. 28, 20124:40 p.m.

“We’re not talking ‘Dark Knight’ here, but it’s in our second-biggest theater, and it’s been selling out.”

– Warren Theatres owner Bill Warren on the popularity of “2016: Obama’s America” and how he’s had to add extra shows at his east-side theater and now plans to show it on the west side due to demand

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Mitchell Theatres buys Colorado theater

July 30, 20123:57 p.m.

UPDATED — On the heels of entering New Mexico to expand its chain of theaters, Mitchell Theatres has now added a fifth state: Colorado.

The company purchased Skyline Cinema in Dillon, Colo., an eight-screen theater that serves the Summit County resort community. That includes Breckenridge, Silverthorne, Frisco, Copper and Dillon.

This makes 11 theaters and 81 screens that the Mitchell family owns. The family, including Brian Mitchell and his siblings Brent, a lawyer at Martin Pringle, and Kendra Ramsey, who lives in Texas, is a farming family that bought its first theater in Newton six years ago and has been steadily acquiring new theaters ever since.

The Colorado acquisition was completed the Monday after the July 20 shootings in an Aurora theater, which is about 80 miles from the Dillon theater.

Brian Mitchell says while he was in Colorado for the purchase, he drove to Aurora to visit a memorial to the victims.

“It’s a surreal feeling,” Mitchell says. “Your heart goes out to the families, but it’s also inspiring because you’d visit with people around the memorial.”

He says he contacted each of his family’s theaters regarding security after the Aurora shootings. Mitchell said he instructed managers to hire extra security officers if they felt they were needed, and some did. He says the theaters are still allowing costumes at shows, but not full masks or fake weapons.

“You didn’t want to eliminate the experience of dressing up for Batman, but you want to make everybody feel safe.”

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Mitchell Theaters buys two more theaters

July 9, 20124:21 p.m.

WICHITA — What Brian Mitchell once described as a hobby is clearly anything but just for fun.

Mitchell Theaters has purchased two more theaters: the 7-screen Storyteller Cinema in Taos, N.M., and the 8-screen Starlight Cinema in Los Lunas, N.M. That brings its total to 10 theaters with 73 screens in four states.

“This hobby has gotten out of control,” Mitchell says, laughing.

The Mitchell family – which includes Brian Mitchell and his siblings Brent, a lawyer at Martin Pringle, and Kendra Ramsey, who lives in Texas — is a farming family that bought its first theater in Newton six years ago and has been steadily acquiring new theaters ever since.

Now is an ideal time to buy theaters, Brian Mitchell says, because of Hollywood’s requirement that all theaters convert to become digital.

“The digital conversation really has the industry in chaos,” Brian Mitchell says. “It created an opportunity for us.”

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You don’t say

March 12, 20122:43 p.m.

“Now, if only Johnny Depp would come …”

– Tallgrass Film Association executive director Lela Meadow-Conner’s e-mail on how she’d like the actor, who has disparaged Wichita moviegoers, to come to the new VI to X: Six Months to Tallgrass Ten film festival

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MovieMaker magazine names Wichita No. 10 on best places for independents to film

Jan. 30, 20125:14 p.m.

WICHITA — Wichita and the Tallgrass Film Festival are getting some great press courtesy of MovieMaker magazine.

The magazine’s latest annual ranking of best places for independent filmmakers to shoot puts Wichita at No. 10.

“It’s kind of verifying something that we already knew,” says Jessy Clonts, Tallgrass’ marketing director. “What this proves is that other people feel that way, too, and hopefully it gets the attention of people who want to make films in this area.”

MovieMaker makes its picks based on “those places that go the extra mile in welcoming lower-budget productions just as much as they do the ‘big guns.’ ”

The magazine quotes Tallgrass Film Association executive director Lela Meadow-Conner on why Wichita works.

“Shooting is easy here. There’s very little red tape, permits aren’t required for filming on public property and there are plenty of local people who are experienced in all aspects of production and readily available for shoots.”

Kansas Film Commission director Peter Jasso agreed that “Wichita is a home away from home for filmmakers looking to turn their dreams into realities.”

It’s why, the magazine says, “Slowly but surely, Wichita is becoming an indie moviemaker’s Eden.”

 

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Wichita is ‘winning’ its feud with actor Johnny Depp, reports the Atlantic Wire

Nov. 11, 20112:46 p.m.

WICHITA –The Wichita-Johnny Depp feud continues to get attention.

The Atlantic Wire, an online news aggregating branch of the Atlantic magazine, reports on the battle over how intelligent Wichita moviegoers are with a story headlined “Johnny Depp Thinks He’s Too Smart for Wichita.”

It all started with a Sunday story in the Guardian newspaper in Britain in which Depp, trying to defend the lackluster performance of his movie “The Rum Diary,” blames Midwest audiences such as those in Wichita for not appreciating smart movies.

After Have You Heard? reported Wichitans’ reactions to Depp’s comments, the Guardian did a follow-up report on its front page on Thursday.

Now, the Atlantic Wire is reporting on the situation and sums it up by saying:

“Who’s Winning Now: Wichita. It’s not just that The Rum Diary has a score of 56 on Metacritic or a 51 percent on Rotten Tomatoes. But for someone preaching about intelligence, Depp went about it in such a ham-fisted way.  Depp has always straddled that line of serious actor and sell out, and audiences have, for the most part, forgiven him for it (the way they do Robert Downey Jr.). But blasting the Midwest for a lack of intelligence and taste is as contrived as it is cliché, and not a good idea when your movie is already flailing in the box office (alienating your customers is not a good business plan). Granted, box-office success and movie quality aren’t always relative, but it’s also entirely possible that Johnny Depp made a bad, unintelligent movie that won’t bring in the money and it isn’t Wichita’s fault that he did.”

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Wichita film experts take umbrage at actor Johnny Depp’s characterization of filmgoers here

Nov. 8, 201111:12 a.m.

WICHITA — Actor Johnny Depp apparently thinks Wichita movie audiences aren’t too smart.

In a Sunday interview with Britain’s Guardian, Depp discussed his new movie, “The Rum Diary,” which is based on the book by Hunter S. Thompson.

“I believe that this film, regardless of what it makes in, you know, Wichita, Kansas, this week — which is probably about $13 — it doesn’t make any difference. I believe that this film will have a shelf life.”

Depp believes the film will do better in Europe than it’s been doing in the United States.

“Most definitely. It’s something that will be more appreciated over here, I think. Cos it’s — well, I think it’s an intelligent film.”

The Guardian reporter wrote that Depp then took “a meaningful pause” before saying, “And a lot of times, outside the big cities in the States, they don’t want that.”

A few Wichitans beg to differ.

Johnny Depp

“That’s just sour grapes,” says Warren Theatres owner Bill Warren. “Last time I heard, it didn’t do well in New York, either.”

Warren says he’s seen the movie and didn’t care for it.

“Ninety nine percent of people in America go to movies for entertainment, and it wasn’t a very entertaining movie, period.”

Lela Meadow-Conner, executive director of the Tallgrass Film Association, says she respects Depp but wonders what he was thinking in this case.

“First of all, don’t bite the hand that feeds you, Johnny Depp,” she says. Take people “who make you a movie star, and then you’re going to call them unintelligent?”

“People have these preconceived notions about cities like Wichita and cities in the Midwest,” she says. “Because his movie has been deemed a critical stinker . . . and audiences haven’t gravitated toward it, obviously he is trying to displace the blame onto audiences here who he deems unintelligent.”

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